When She Was This
by CellophaneCatastrophy
Summary: When she was this, nothing felt right. (Thoughts I had on the dragon form, and Corrin's first fight as a dragon)
When she was this, nothing seemed right. Every person was a target for her rage and instinct. Every human and Faceless a chance at proving that she was the dominate dragon, and that she would always triumph over the weak. It almost didn't matter to the dragon mind who she was, or who she called an ally. If someone or something moved, it was free to tear, and rend, and destroy it.

The first time it happened, she barely held that mind in check. It almost took complete control so many times. When Azura was too close to the Faceless with the Wyrmslayer, and the claws brushed the air near her face as the Faceless was wiped away from this plane. When Rinkah followed her club down onto the skull of an enemy, she barely missed the paw swiping where they both were. Sakura rushed forward towards a Faceless, looking only towards her brother fighting off the hooded thing that caused her mother's death, completely missing the teeth snapping closed behind her. It was all Corrin could do to hold back the dragon from destroying the new friends and family she'd found.

Azura assured her, once Corrin regained control, that the dragon stone would keep her in check, that the stone would lock away the dragon mind and instinct, and allow her the freedom to switch between her two forms without worry or hassle. After all, she had read all about them in the Hoshido libraries. She had read first hand accounts of the friends of those who used dragon stones and all seemed well with them. What Azura never found were the deeply hidden stories written by the ones who held the stones. The past royals who achieved this state, and thus needed the stones. The stories of madness, hunger, and rage that the holders experienced as they changed forms. Never heard of the stories of the wielders losing control over their other form and killing those friends who wrote of them, and losing their minds to the dragon.

Azura never read those stories, and Corrin never told her, or anyone, of her struggle. Those moments in the heat of battle when she had to fight past the urge to kill everyone around her. The hours spent in the privacy of her tent clutching the stone and wishing that power away as a roar sounded in her head, dying to escape. The times she would wake from a dream of power and flight, lost and confused and volatile to the first person she saw.

Corrin felt lost in this hell, and when she found the tomes, hidden deep in the far reaches of the library, she knew what she would become. Lost to the mind of the dragon, or dead by her own hand.

But then, she noticed. She noticed that the dragon was calmer, less rage filled. It was retreating back inside her head faster, and calling for freedom and bloodshed less. And at first, she was confused. All accounts had her living an average number of years dueling with the dragon before losing, and now that seemed to have changed. Weeks of furious reading followed, secluded in her tent when she could, and out in the battle field when she was needed. But all the stories told the same tale: awakening dragon blood, the adoption of a dragon stone, struggle for many years with the dragon, and then either death or losing one's self to it. Her story was different, and she didn't know why.

It took a chance encounter in the field of battle for her to figure it out. One minute she was killing Faceless, and then a familiar voice was heard, crying out in pain. Immediately, the dragon turned its head, and it saw him. Kneeling on the ground, holding his shoulder as his enemy raised his sword again to strike down the man. The dragon launched itself in his direction, no hesitation, and slammed away the attacker. It then crouched and curled itself around her hurt friend, attempting to comfort and nuzzle him as best it could. Through her own worry, Corrin was astonished. The dragon was so filled with worry, it wasn't even looking at the other Faceless around it. It was focused solely on her downed friend, rubbing its face along his unhurt arm, drawing a hesitant head pat from the man. It was then that she realized why the dragon was calmer, and something very, very important about herself.

So, over the next few weeks, she kept a careful watch over the dragon in her mind, and her own mind and feelings. And what she noticed explained what was happening. As she discovered the cause, she went back to the tomes of the wielders before, and it confirmed the idea. Realized that, though the past humans with dragon stones had friends and family, but no one closer, due to fear. With the knowledge she gained, she knew what she had to do.

One evening, she left her tent and wandered out behind it, where she knew her friend would be out keeping watch. It did take a few minutes, but soon she found him, under a tree, purple scarf fluttering in the wind. Corrin hailed the man, and soon was by his side. As expected, the dragon quieted itself, and almost purred in contentment at being around him. Under that tree, alone except for each other, Corrin started talking to him, and soon both confessed the feelings they had kept hidden from each other, and night soon fell on the cuddling pair, high in the tree that sheltered them.

Two years later, once Akankos had been defeated, and weddings, coronations, and many children had been had, Corrin smiled to her husband, holding her second child, and listening to the quiet dragon's purr, content with the knowledge that it would never control her again, as long as she had him. And that with him, everything was right.  
A/N: Edit to fix the fact that I put Risen instead of Faceless multiple times , I am a dumb dumb, and playing both games at the same time.


End file.
